The Heir of Zeus Trilogy: Zander's Destiny
by Cora Lennox
Summary: Kronos killed Uranus. Zeus dethroned Kronos. Long ago it was foretold that the same fate would befall Zeus... Zander doesn't want to start a revolution of the Gods. But can he fight Fate? My very first fanfic. OCs and a few book characters.
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN PJO!**

** OTHER DISCLAIMER: This is my first fanfic. I'm sorry if I'm breaking any fundamental fanfiction law. XD**

** DISCLAIMER NUMERO TRES: It's been about a year since I read these books, so I'm sorry for any eye color inaccuracies or the like. Feel free to correct me.**

Prologue

There was a powerful storm whirling over the Calm Waters trailer park. If you were to watch the storm closely, you might notice that the storm seemed to be originating from one single powder blue double wide… but that would be too strange to be true, of course.

Inside the powder blue double wide that the storm could not possibly be radiating from there sat two figures, not counting the baby asleep on the rickety kitchen table.

"So this is the one?" The man said, his voice hushed, almost scared. Fear was something practically unknown to this man… something he often took pleasure in giving to others, but never truly experienced himself. Fear was for mortals.

He looked human enough. He had chosen, for this particular venture, the appearance of a lean limbed Italian man, with a crooked seductive smile and attractively unkempt black hair. But his eyes… his eyes were unchangeable. They were a deep blue grey, and anyone who stared into them long enough would see the kind of coal black clouds that swirl in nightmares…

His eyes flashed. Lightening cracked outside the trailer.

"Yes," said the woman who stood beside him, "The one." Her voice echoed when she spoke, as if she was calling from some distance away instead of standing two feet from the man. Her appearance was strangely vague as well, her skin was grey, almost faded, as if she had stepped out of a very old movie.

She was smelling a flower, a white magnolia, inhaling it like a kind of drug.

The man's eyes filled with slow malicious anger at the squirming infant on the table. And thunder boomed.

"When?" he whispered.

The woman momentarily lowered the magnolia from beneath her nose, "It shall begin…" she whispered, studying the child with milky white eyes, "In fifteen years time… if the fates speak true to me…"

She turned back to the magnolia and bit into one of its petals, crunching the blossom against the roof of her mouth. It tasted horrible, sticky and acidic. The woman savored it, moving it around her mouth as if it were a fine wine. It had been so long since she had tasted anything, since she had felt anything…

The man spoke to her, although his gaze did not waver from the baby. "Cassandra of Troy…" he said, "I brought you from The Underworld because you were a great oracle… because you remain a great oracle. I brought you here to exchange a prophecy for new life."

Cassandra nodded, her misty eyes narrowing as she wrenched off the magnolia stem with her grey chipped teeth. "Yes, My Lord."

The man pulled his gaze slowly from the slumbering infant, as if afraid to turn his back on it. "I can send you back." He said coldly, "As a matter of fact, I told my brother that that was exactly what I would do after I was through with you… You know how he hates to lose a member of his dominion."

Cassandra's milk eyes widened, "No! You- you can't! You promised! You- you said! Do you have any idea?" she backed away from the man, pressing herself against the wall of the dingy trailer, "You don't know… You have never known death… you will never know death…"

"No." The man said. He eyed the baby coldly, suspiciously, "I don't intend to. Listen to me, Cassandra. You may still escape existence in the land of the dead. Someone, I do not know who, is defending this child. Magic surrounds him, powerful magic I cannot penetrate. Is this magic permanent, seer?"

The grey cadaverous woman stepped slowly away from the wall, approaching the baby, staring into its deep blue eyes. "No." she said, "When the child reaches his fifteenth birthday, you shall be able to do as you will."

The man cursed loudly, banging a muscular fist on the table. Lightening snapped a tree outside the window. "That's not good enough!" he snarled loudly. "By then he will already have skills. Power. Ideas. Anger. That's not good enough…"

"The magic is deep." Cassandra sighed, "That is the only way it may be. It is the work of The Fates, My Lord. "

"I cannot hurt him myself…" the man muttered, "But you can. You may win life… by delivering this child to Tartarus. I do not wish to kill a boy of my own flesh… but no choices remain. Do this and I shall make you immortal, Cassandra of Troy."

Cassandra grinned slowly, "You don't understand, do you? You rule all of the gods and yet you don't understand… The Fates have decided the child's path. Even if I agreed to take him to Tartarus, I would not be successful. It is written in the stars, in the prophecies… Just as your fate was written in the prophecies long ago. Kronos could not stand in destiny's way, no matter how many children he swallowed. You cannot stand in destiny's way, no matter how far or how deep you banish this boy…"

The wind outside howled so loudly that ceiling stripped off of surrounding trailers. The lightening was relentless and the thunder furious.

The man was furious as well. He stood up out of his chair, his eyes flashing so rapidly they practically sizzled… "I SHALL NOT BE OVERTHROWN!" he bellowed, before sending a crackling blue beam of pure electricity hurtling towards the grey woman.

In her last moments, Cassandra crammed the rest of the magnolia blossom into her mouth. Oh, how glorious it was to feel… she savored until her last breath.

Thunder boomed so loudly the ground shook as the man disappeared.

Lightening flashed. The baby giggled.


	2. 1: A Bad First Impression

Zander did not want to be where he was. Where Zander was was on a bus, heading to a camp, being chased by a chimera. The chimera didn't bother him. The idea of going to camp did. As a matter of fact, Zander wouldn't have minded if the chimera punctured one of the bus tires and sent it spiraling out of control off the road. Anything to stop him from going to the damn camp.

But, although the chimera was trying its freaky, three headed best to claw its way through the side of the moving bus, it wasn't having much success. And Zander could see the camp getting closer. He could also see the fuzzy hooved legs of Tristam Laurel sticking out from under the seat in front of him.

"It's not getting in, Tris." He said, "It's pretty small. You know, small for a… chimichanga? And it's slow."

"Ch-chimera!" Tristam hissed, "And it's not slow. It has wings."

Zander bit his lip, "Ah," he said, "Then that's not good…" He slowly turned his head upwards to see the metal ceiling of the run down school bus slowly curl away like an orange being peeled… and he saw the gaping, snarling, feline mouth above him snarl in what he thought was a rather smug way.

"Actually," he said, "It is pretty big."

Zander quickly whipped out his pocket knife- it was the only birthday present his father had ever given him, but he had to admit, it was quite useful. Extremely useful, in fact, considering that when flipped open it became a two foot long bright electric blue sword. Those always came in handy, Zander had found.

He stood up on the pealing fake leather school bus seat and cut a quick slash at the chimera's paw as it clawed down from the ceiling, and prepared himself for quite a fight…

But he never got the fight he braced himself for. Because, as if hit suddenly over the head, the monstrous chimera fell backwards off the top of the bus, tumbling down to the road behind them.

Tristam crept out finally from under the seat, grinning a crooked toothed smile. "The camp," he explained, "It's protected… the monsters stay away."

Zander flicked his sword back and slipped it into his pocket again, "Well," he said, "Isn't that convenient. Remind me again why I have to be here. I want three good reasons before I get off this bus."

"So you don't get eaten!" The satyr snapped testily.

"Okay," Zander said, "So that's one reason…Two more."

"So you don't get killed…" Tristam went on.

"If I get eaten, it's understood that I'm getting killed as well." Zander said, "That reason doesn't count. Two more."

"Because your father would wish it…?" Tristam tried.

"Erm, no." Zander said, "One, I hate my father and don't really give a damn what he thinks, and two, I have the suspicion that he's been the one trying to kill me this whole time. So no. That doesn't count. Two more good reasons."

Tristam paused in thought, "So you may learn better how to defend yourself?"

Zander nodded, "Yep, I'll count that. Got another reason? You just need one more." He yawned, reclining on the torn bus seat as Tristam's thin worried face contorted with concentration.

"You can't think of any, can you?" Zander said after a few seconds, "Guess I'll just have to stay on this bus and not go out there with all those suck ups I'll probably hate… what a shame, what a shame…"

Tristam scowled at his sarcasm. "I'll give you a reason- because I said so!"

Zander rolled his eyes, "No offence, Tris, but the command of a goat man… it's not really worth that much. So that doesn't count as a reason."

Tristam turned bright red, bleating indignantly. "Well… how about this! There's this god of war? Ares? And he has a bunch of kids. And they're all at this camp. And if I told them to come in here and disembowel you right now, they would really like that."

Zander sat up promptly, "Hm," he said, "Seems like a valid reason. Okay, I'll get off the bus."

Tristam smiled in relief as Zander gathered up his backpack and headed off the bus, standing and looking around the camp with narrow, apprehensive eyes. His first impressions of what he saw went like this.

Sword fighting- Show offs.

Archery- Gay.

Temple- suck ups.

Centaur- weird

Guy In Hawaiian Shirt- Drunk

Girls- Some hot, all bitchy looking.

So, all in all, it looked like the camp was going to live up to all his expectations. He had expected to hate it.

What he hadn't expected was for time to stop. Erm, metaphorically, of course. As a matter of fact, Zander with all the freaky occurrences in Zander's life lately, he would have half expected an actual stop in time to be more likely than this.

As he stepped off the bus, practically all motion in the camp ceased. Bows lowered. Swords lowered. Chariots screeched to a halt. Conversations stopped midsentence ant turned into whispers. People nudged each other with elbows and attempted to point out Zander to their friends nonchalantly.

Zander sighed. So apparently he wasn't even normal at a camp especially designed for freaks. That was lovely.

"Hey Tris?" he whispered, "Have I, like, broken some sort of sacred godly rule or some sort of bull like that? Because everyone's looking at me like I just killed a puppy… it's a little weird."

Tristam pursed his lips, "I… I really can't tell you…" he said, nervously smiling to the staring campers.

Zander scowled poisonously at them. It was how he usually dealt with things that frightened him, when he wasn't hitting them or insulting them. Zander had what the counselors often called "self-control issues"… but it worked for him.

The glare just made them whisper more.

"Back to practice everyone!" a voice called, "I do believe you've all seen a boy get off a bus before."

The voice was that of the horse guy that Zander had seen earlier. He had a teachery sort of voice, that made Zander's scowl deepen instinctively. He had never got along well with teachers, or any other authority figure for that matter. As far as Zander was concerned, the only person who had ever done anything to earn his respect was his mother, so that was the only person he respected.

"That's Chiron!" Tristam hissed to Zander.

Zander nodded, biting his lip, "It's weird how you say that like it should matter…" He had played Nintendo through most of Tristam's mythology lectures.

Tris rolled his eyes. He was a good eye roller; they were big, and very green.

The rest of the campers slowly went back to doing as they had before Zander arrived, although there remained a certain suspicious stillness to the air.

"I am Chiron," the centaur said, approaching Zander with a small smile, "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Zander Trulocke."

Zander didn't reply, giving a curt nod as he surveyed the man (well, half-man) in front of him suspiciously.

"So." Zander said bluntly, "I have to stay here? Can't leave this freak dump?"

"At the moment," Chiron said, completely unfazed, "Your safety is our primary concern. And it would be extremely unwise to allow you beyond the protections of this camp. Dangerous and strange forces may be pursuing you."

"Yeah…" Zander said, "Because in here, everything's just peachy and normal isn't it? I'm not surrounded by freaks with swords who all look like they want to kill me…"

Beside him, Tristam bleated nervously.

The man Zander had seen before in the Hawaiian shirt was now standing behind Chiron, "Oh great. So not only is he probably going to get us all killed, he's a smartass too. Remind me again why we couldn't just leave him for the monsters?"

"Because," Chiron sighed, "As we have _previously discussed _that would be immoral and completely against our goals as a camp."

"But what about the rest!" the other man said, loud enough that now the activity in the camp had stopped again, and once again, all eyes were on Zander. "We can't sacrifice the good of everyone here just for that little brat! I'm sure not going to die so he can live!"

"Considering your immortality…" Chiron sighed, "I highly doubt death is anywhere in your future."

"You know what the prophecy said… if he lives then we all go down as the price…"

Zander frowned deeply. He had heard lots of reasons to throw him out of places in his time, but this was a new one on him. He looked at the ground, no longer able to meet the angry gazes of the campers surrounding him.

"We will continue this conversation in private!" Chiron hissed to the man behind him, "Now, is there anyone here who would like to show Zander to his cabin?"

Zander was pretty sure he heard crickets chirping. He was pretty sure he saw everyone around him take one unified step backwards. He raised an eyebrow at Tristam, who shrugged nervously.

After a few more seconds of silence, a girl stepped forward, dragging a rather reluctant looking boy behind her by the arm.

"We'll show him, sir." She said brightly.

"Thank you Acantha, Hyroneimus," Chiron said, nodding to them both, "You may follow them," he told Zander, "They will give you a tour of camp,"

Zander didn't say a word as he walked up to the girl, watching Chiron and Hawaiian-shirt-grumpy-doomsayer-man leaving, arguing with each other in hushed voices.


	3. 2: The Witch and the Jinx

Zander turned back to the rather strange girl in front of him, who grinned at him, her teeth bright white against her black lipstick.

"I'm Acantha Black," she said, with a strange amount of brightness for someone who looked like the picture you'd get if you googled the word "goth". She extended him a pale hand decked in more strangely occult carved rings and bangles than a jewelry store display. "You can call me Aci." Zander shook Acantha's small pale white hand with his tan one. She jingled.

"Hi Acantha," Zander said, "It's… nice to meet you, I guess. Under the circumstances of everyone else hating my guts, you know."

"We won't hate you," Acantha said, shrugging, "I mean, the two of us can sympathize. We know plenty about what it feels like to be freaks." She grinned.

"Ummm… thanks." Zander said blankly, not sure if he was just comforted or insulted.

"This is Hyroneimus," Acantha said, nodding to a small wiry boy beside her, with glasses and an unruly shock of bright red hair.

The red haired boy pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled at Zander, "But you can call me Jinx. It's considerably easier."

Acantha's face flashed with angry annoyance, "No!" she snapped, "He can't call you Jinx. It's not nice."

Jinx sighed, "Aci… we've been over this… if I _want _to be called Jinx, then it's _not _an _insult!" _

"But it's so _degrading!" _Acantha said, stomping her foot, which was pare with black nail polish. "If you had any self-confidence at all, you wouldn't want people calling you that."

"You have to admit though," Jinx said, "It's pretty appropriate…"

"No it's not. It's all in your head!" Acantha insisted.

"Oh, so that time I managed to shoot Mr. D with an arrow while he was _standing behind me_, that was all in my head then, was it?" Jinx raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, so _most _of it's all in your head…"

"And that time when we were playing capture the flag and I captured _the wrong flag? _What about the time I accidentally set fire to the Ares cabin?"

"Well, at least some of it's all in your head…"

"The time I ran my chariot into the lake? What about when I flooded the bathrooms for five days straight or knocked out five satyrs playing volleyball? What about the ten different swords I've broken this year alone?"

"Okay fine!" Acantha snapped, folding her arms and turning away from him, "You are… sort of a jinx. But it's not your fault and you shouldn't let people make you feel bad about it!"

Jinx sighed, turning to Zander, who had been watching the argument with a combination of confusion and amusement. "My mother is Eris." He said, "the goddess of discord. So befriend me at your own risk, I guess. I have a tendency to break things… and catch things on fire… and make technology malfunction…"

Zander smiled, "Hey," he said, "It's alright. What with all that 'he's going to destroy us all!' business, I'm probably not the safest guy to buddy up with either."

Jinx grinned, "Together who knows what havoc we'll wreak?" He stuck out a hand for Zander to shake, and when he shook it, he found that he soon had a random paper cut on his pinky finger.

Jinx smiled sheepishly, "Sorry…" he said, "That happens a lot…"

"It's why I usually avoid touching him directly," Acantha said, "No offense to him."

Zander found himself laughing just a little, as weird as this all was.

His good mood was broken when some random kid with a sword flipped him off.

"You'll just have to learn to ignore everyone," Acantha sighed, "Although if you want me too I can curse him tonight." She added thoughtfully.

Zander raised an eyebrow, "Curse him? Can we do that?"

"_We_ can't," Jinx clarified, "But _she_ can."

" 'Cause I'm a freakin' awesome witch and you guys are just demigods!" Acantha chirped, sticking her tongue out playfully.

Zander's face grew confused, "Witch? Like, a real, true to life, potion making brook stick flying black cat petting witch?"

"No…" Jinx sighed, "Not like that at all. And now she's mad… wait for the rant…"

"Why do people _believe _that crap?" Acantha shouted shrilly, "Why IN HADES would you put a flying charm on a BROOM? If you're good enough to do a flying charm, why wouldn't you just put it on YOURSELF IN THE FIRST PLACE? And what is it with the black cat thing? They aren't magical. They are cats. They are black. That is all. I happen to be freaking ALLERGIC to cats! It doesn't matter!" She took a deep breath, pursing her lips and crossing her arms, "And we don't cackle either!"

Zander rolled his eyes, "Well excuse me!" he snapped, "It's just that, I've never met another witch before because I sort of thought they _weren't real!" _

"Well, we are real, we are the real daughters of Hecate, the real goddess of witches and we have real feelings!" Acantha said, "And I have some very real potions I could slip into your drink that would turn you into a donkey."

Zander paled. Not much scared him. But the prospect of being a donkey was a bit intimidating.

"So…" he said, to break the rather tense silence, "Where's my cabin?"

Acantha didn't reply, looking away. Apparently she wasn't speaking to him. Which took the number of people who even remotely liked him in this camp down from two to one. Great.

Jinx sighed, "It's over here," he said, walking towards a large and apparently empty cabin, adorned with pictures of thunderbolts, "Normally we put new people in the Hermes cabin until they're claimed but… there's not much question with you."

"Ah," Zander said, "Not much question? That's interesting because I have no freaking idea what's going on."

"Your father is Zeus. Your father is the Gods' King. Your father is pissed," Jinx summarized. He bit his lip, "I don't think we're allowed to tell you anything else."

Zander flopped down on his bed with a huff and kicked the wall, "And you guys don't find it a little unfair that everyone knows everything about me and my life and whatever is wrong with me, but I don't know _a damn thing!"_

Jinx shrugged. He leaned against the wall and one of the bunk beds on the opposite side of the room randomly fell down. He winced, and stepped back, turning to Zander "Ignorance is bliss, remember. If you found out… you might discover you don't really want to know."

"Like, _really _don't want to know." Acantha added.

"You two are just soooo comforting," Zander said, rolling over, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Acantha grinned, playing with a weird scorpion shaped amulet around her neck. "That's what friends are for!" she chirped. "We've got your back, for better or for worse!"

Jinx was across the room, attempting to put the bed back together. It broke in five more places, then caught on fire, "Probably for worse," he added.


	4. 3: Rage and Revelations

A storm was brewing in the distance; Zander could see the angry black clouds swirling around each other. He was pissed. Although he had spent a good part of the day being glared and whispered at by the other campers, that wasn't the source of his bad mood. Zander was used to not exactly being the world's most likeable guy.

"Something wrong?" Acantha asked. She, Zander, and Jinx were walking down to lunch together.

"Stormy…" Zander grumbled.

Acantha raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the issue any further. Probably because Zander looked ready to murder the next person who breathed at him.

And it was the storminess that was darkening his mood. It always had that effect on him.

As he looked back on it, every major event of rage in his life had taken place under a stormy sky- that kid he beat up in the first grade, that expensive science project he smashed in the fifth, that desk he broke in middle school, that kid he left bleeding on the side walk just a few weeks ago.

He sat down to lunch with Acantha and Jinx, silently seething.

"Hey, ummm… mind telling me why your flinging food in the fire? I mean, I usually eat mine. But that's just me," he muttered, raising a questioning eyebrow at Acantha as she threw in half her sandwich.

"It's offerings." She said, "To our parents."

"I'm guessing you mean the god parents, not the normal ones, right?" Zander said.

Jinx nodded, "Yeah." He said, "It's a sort of ritual to keep them appeased and show them we're grateful or whatever."

Zander burst into a laugh, "That is BULL!" he said, starting in on his sandwich without throwing any into the flames.

Jinx just looked amused, but Acantha was staring at him in an expression of wide eyed shock and disgust.

"What?" he said, smiling cockily, "There's no way in hell I'm doing that."

"Zander!" Acantha hissed to him in a whisper, "You _have _to!"

"No," Zander said, "I don't think I will. Because frankly, I think my father is a bastard and I don't owe him anything."

"It doesn't matter what you _think!" _Acantha said, "It matters what you _are._ And you _are _a son of Zeus. So you make an offering because without him you wouldn't be the person you are."

"And you make an offering so you remain distinctly _not _a charred burn mark on the ground." Jinx offered.

Acantha glared at him for ruining her rather deep lecture and turned back to Zander, "Understand?"

"Understand? Hell no." Zander said, "If what you people have told me is true, then my father is _king of the gods._ He has unlimited power. So what I want to know is why I guy who controls pretty much everything won't take the responsibility to send a little money out to a woman who had his kid. I want to know why my mom works two jobs and lives in a trailer, while her baby daddy is sitting in the clouds drinking ambrosia. I always hated my dad, even though I never met him, because I knew he was a jerk that left a woman to take care of his kid while he skipped town. And just because now I know he's immortal doesn't mean I'm going to like him anymore. He hasn't done crap for me. He's not getting my sandwich." He snarled.

He knew it was probably the storm talking… Zander had a fiery temper on the sunniest of days, but he would never get this angrily bitter about tossing away a little food unless there was something else involved.

Acantha sighed "You don't get it, do you? You wouldn't be who you are if it weren't for him! You're special! You're a child of _Zeus!_ Think of what I would be if I weren't Hecate's daughter. Nothing!"

"Think of what I would be if I weren't Eris's son," Jinx added sarcastically, "Tolerable!"

"Shut up, I'm trying to make a point!" Acantha snapped at him, "Look, Zander, if I weren't Hecate's daughter, I'd be Tracey Allen just like I was before I found out. And Tracey Allen was a confused nobody. I didn't know who I really was and it was terrible."

Zander rolled his eyes and smirked, "That's really peachy for you, then," he said, "But if I am _anything _at _all _like _my _father? I think I'd kill myself. The gods are nothing but spoiled jerks, in my opinion." He said, "And kissing their shiny immortal asses isn't going to get me anywhere."

And that was when she poured her apple juice on his head and stormed off.

Jinx let out a low whistle, "That was pretty impressive," he said, "She was all over you when you first got here, you know. She gave me, like, this five minute lecture about why you were infinitely attractive. There's not much more powerful than a teenage girl's crush, and you totally destroyed that in like, thirty seconds. Pretty impressive, my friend, not even I could have wrecked something that fast." Jinx grinned crookedly and held out his glass of juice in a toast to Zander. Both their glasses spilled.

Lunch was ending and the other campers had slowly left. All but one, who was standing a distance away, leaning against a tree and glaring at Zander like he was dancing on his family's grave.

Zander sighed, then turned his gaze up to the boy, "Yeah. I know. Everyone hates me. This is a concept I'm very familiar with by now." He said tiredly.

Jinx's eyes suddenly shot open wide.

"What?" Zander asked, shrugging as the boy started approaching him.

"Do you like having all your limbs and digits neatly attached to your body?" Jinx asked him.

Zander nodded slowly.

"Then that is a very good reason why you don't talk to that guy like that." Jinx said.

"I see," Zander said, smirking, "He thinks he's badass? You know, I think I'm pretty badass myself…"

Jinx groaned as lightning flashed, "Why do I always make friends with the crazies?"

"You didn't make an offering," the boy said as he strode up. He was at least six feet tall and made of solid, bronze colored muscle. He looked like an advertisement for an expensive body building machine. Well, actually, no. The men on those commercials never have a glint in their eye as if they are about to commit a heinous violent crime. This boy looked as if he was about to commit several, and enjoy each one immensely.

"Nope," Zander said lazily, "None of those bitches in sky has ever made me any offerings. And I mean, seriously, who needs it more, me or them?"

The boy clenched his fists slowly, "My name is Darian Hart. I have been at this camp for ten years." The boy said coldly, "Nothing instills me with a greater sense of pride than the knowledge that my mother is Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare."

Zander rolled his eyes, "And she must be _very _proud of you."

Darian gritted his teeth and Zander could tell he was putting all his effort into not attacking him right there. Jinx was attempting to hide behind a tree at least three times smaller than he was.

With forcefully measured calm, Darian said to Zander, "I will not have the integrity of myself and all the others in this camp who take pride in our lineage and skills undermined by an complete idiot like yourself."

"Nice to know." Zander said, "Though I'm curious… just exactly how are you planning on doing this? Because I'm not going to do a damn thing you say." A slow grin spread across his face.

Darian's eyes flashed with anger, "Duel me," he said, "And perhaps we will see if your arrogance is justified."

Zander should have known, from the frantic throat slitting gestures that Jinx was making behind his insufficient tree, that accepting Darian's challenge was a bad idea. But storms often fuzzied his self-control, which wasn't at the best times a thing of beauty.

He drew his pocket knife, and flicked out the sword blade with a grin, "Think you're better than me because you suck up to mommy? Let's find out."

Jinx was either whispering prayers or swears, Zander couldn't tell.

And Darian drew his sword… and Darian raised his sword in his sinuous well trained copper arms…

"That's enough," Chiron said, "We can save this for training, can't we, boys?"

Darian sighed, giving Zander a dirty look as he sheathed his sword. "He didn't make an offering…" he grumbled.

Chiron nodded, "Zander is still new her, Darian. Give him time and he will come to understand things more fully."

Zander glared at Chiron as the wind whipped through the trees, howling.

Chiron sighed. "Follow me, Zander. There is something that needs to be explained."

Zander put his sword away and swore under his breath as he followed Chiron to the big house. What was this going to be? Probably one of those "now-we-have-rules-and-standards-here-that-MUST-BE-FOLLOWED!" sort of thing. Then again, it could be one of those, "now-I know-you're-a-good-boy-but-you've-got-to-turn-you're-life-around" things. Either way, Zander was dreading i

"Sit down," Chiron said, nodding to a chair in front of a table in the big house, "I have some things which could do with explaining. I understand that your experiences here thus far must have been confusing."

"No," Zander said, rolling his eyes lightly, "The goat people, the witch, the gods… How could that possibly be confusing?"

Chiron sighed, "I was referring to… the attitudes of many of the other campers."

"Oh, how they all wish I was dead?" Zander said, "That attitude?"

"Yes," Chiron said, "Alrough I wouldn't go as far to say they wish you dead… there is a certain amount of hostility, I will admit." He bit his lip, "It is difficult for me to know where to start this… As you likely know, the chaos titan Kronos murdered his father."

"Yeah." Zander said. He thought he remembered something of that nature from one of Tristam's ramblings that he had half way paid attention to.

"Then Zeus murdered Kronos, dethroning him." Chiron said.

Zander nodded absentmindedly, staring at the window.

"Pay attention," Chiron said, "This is important. There is a prophecy Zander. Do you know what a prophecy is?"

"Totally. I've watched movies before." Zander said.

"Quite," Chiron muttered, "There was a prophecy made which, is believed to indicate that you will dethrone Zeus and overpower the known gods. It is… quite well known to say the least. Which is the reason for any friction you have experienced while here."

Zander's eyes widened, "That's bull! I don't want to rule the gods. Why would I? I don't even like any of you freak people!"

"The prophecy has been deeply analyzed…" Chiron sighed, "There is general consensus that that is its meaning… I do have the original words to it somewhere, if you would like to see for yourself."

Zander's jaw clenched. He sat quietly and shook his head slowly, staring straight ahead of him his brows knitted in a combination of confusion and anger. There was a low roll of thunder from outside.

Zander stood up suddenly and punched the wall, swearing loudly.

Chiron only raised an eyebrow, "I knew we should have waited to tell him…" he muttered.

"No. Freaking. WAY!" Zander yelled. He gave the wall another punch, followed by a long string of expletives.

"Please try to calm down, Zander, and we will discuss this in a-" Chiron began.

"I DON'T like people telling me what to do!" Zander snapped, "I never have, and I never will! And I sure as hell don't like some freaking _oracle _that has never _met _me telling me what to do!"

He punched the wall again. This time his fist went through. Chiron remained stoic, only flinching slightly as the wall was cracked open. Jinx, however, was wide eyed and panicked looking as he watched from the doorway.

"I don't think you're understanding how this works, Zander. The idea of a prophecy isn't to tell you what to do, but to tell you what you will do." Chiron sighed.

Zander rolled his eyes, "I hate to break it to you," he said quietly, "but that is _exactly the same thing!_"

Chiron apparently deciding it best just not to argue anymore. "It's something you're just going to have to accept…" he said quietly.

"The HELL I DO!." Zander shouted. He kicked the table in front of him and it went crashing to the ground, sending Chiron dodging quickly backwards and Jinx ducking instinctively.

"Zander, I realize your upset but it's still not acceptable to destroy things!" Chiron said firmly.

Zander ignored him, "I'm NOT going to accept it! I don't actually give a damn about what the jerks in the sky want to do, and, as much as I hate my dad, I don't want to rule the heavens, thank you very much. So I'm not going to."

"Zander…" Chiron sighed.

"You know why I think prophecies come true? I think it's because everyone rolls over and _lets _the prophecies come true. They're too lazy assed to think for themselves, so they don't even bother to try. But I'm not going to let that happen." Zander said.

Then he turned and stormed out of the room as lightning flashed in the distance.

Chiron shook his head slowly.

A few minutes later Zander was in Jinx's cabin. They had decided to return there and talk instead on Zander's cabin because as Jinx put it, his own cabin was "immune to him."

"You have to admit, the kicking over the table part was a bit… superfluous." Jinx sighed, sitting down on a bunk.

"It would be cool if I knew what that word meant…" Zander said, sinking down onto the bunk opposite Jinx.

"It means you really didn't have to kick the table over. We got the point from all the yelling and wall punching." Jinx said bluntly.

Zander rolled his eyes, "I can't help it, all right? It's in my nature. I've been punching holes in my bedroom wall since I was, like, ten." He lay down on the bunk with a sigh.

The storm had passed, leaving just a drizzling grey rain pattering against the windows. Zander's burst of rage was gone, and so was his confidence in his ability to overcome the prophecy. He was exhausted, and he was completely confused.

"So I guess I'm screwed, huh? Guess it's that whole like-father-like son thing? I'm screwed to be just like him?" Zander said, staring at the ceiling, talking to himself as much as anyone else.

Jinx raised an eyebrow, "I thought you didn't believe the prophecy?"

Zander shrugged, "Honestly, I don't have any idea what I believe. You know what I believed three days ago? That I wasn't a freak of nature. And look at me now! Son of the biggest bastard in the universe…" he grumbled.

An awkward silence fell over Jinx's disarrayed cabin. He was the only child of Eris the camp had, since it was imaginably difficult for a discord goddess to have a successful courtship. Jinx filled up the empty space with books. He didn't have shelves, but the books were stacked in waist high piles around the cabin, or in some cases just lying in heaps on the floor. Zander had had to step over them to get in.

"You read a lot then?" Zander said eventually. He had always possessed a sort of talent for pointing out the obvious. When Jinx nodded, he said, "I thought we were all dyslexic?"

"We are," Jinx said with a shrug, "But I still read. When everything you touch goes wrong, it's sort of nice to be able to read about people with actual talent and happy endings and crap."

"Huh," Zander said thoughtfully, rolling onto his stomach, "I would have thought reading would be a… more like an Athena cabin sort of thing?"

Jinx shook his head, "I'll admit that when you're a demi-god, your lineage is a big part of you. But it's not _all _of you, despite what people like Acantha and Darian think. You can be other things than just a child-of-whoever."

"Unless you've got a big, bad assed prophecy on you that says you get to be just like dad when you grow up." Zander muttered bitterly.

Jinx paused thoughtfully , stretching out and opening a book, "Yeah," he said, "Other than that."

"Has anyone ever told you you're really crap at being comforting?" Zander sighed.

Jinx smirked, "Has anyone ever told you to stop punching holes in their paneling?"

Zander laughed a little, "I see,"


End file.
